Printing-control system.



J. S. DUNCAN.

PRINTING CONTROL SYSTEM. APPLICATION FILED APR. 9, 1912.

1,082,506. v Patented Dec. 30, 1913.

uzlwii fa; 9 5 i A 7 i L- me/25b? withlidllllii) rarnnr oFrio JOS EIEHS. DUNCAN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINC-IS, AQSIGNOR TO ADDRESSOGRAPH COMPANY, OFCHICAGO, II.-LIZ-TGIS, A CGBPGRATION OF ILLINOIS.

PRINTING-CONTROL SYSTEZE.

Specification of Letters Patent. 1 Patented Dec, 30, 1913, Applicationfiled April 9,

1913. Serial No. 759,873.

T 0 all whom it may emu-em Be it known that I, Josnri-i S. Duncan, acitizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cookand State of Illinois, have invented certain new and use-- fulImprovements in Printing-Control Sys toms, of which the following is aspecification.

My present invention relates in general to the art of printing and hasmore particular reference to a system comprising a plurality of seriesof units by IHQEU'IS of which the printing q crations of a printingmachine may be cijmitrolled.

Printing devices comprising a body or form provided with printingcharacters adapted to print an address or otl'ier suitable matter andalso adapted to be stored in accordance with a card-index system, orstacked in a, pile, and run through an addressing or other printingmachine' for takimpressions from the forms tire well known to thoseskilled in the art. In order that only certain ones or certain classesof the printing devices in'sucli a stock or pile will be printed whenthe entire stcclcis run througl'i a machine, I have devised a systemincluding a plurality of series or control units adapted to hedetachahly engaged with the printing devices so that the devices arethereby classified in accordance with the position of. a unit, or unitsengaged there- Iii my earlier application, Serial Xumher 718,614- filedSeptember 5, 1912, I disclosed a printing device having twelve keepersand a reversible tripper orcontrol unit ada ted tone va-i-yinglypositioned so f as to provide for weuty-four classifications. In manyinstances this number of classifies-- tions is insuilicicnt and mypresent invention aims to provide a control system embodying, asdisclosed on the drawings, fiftytwo classifications but, it will beobvious as the invention is more fully understood that my present systemis capable of variation to include a greater or less number ofclassifications than fifty-two as may be found desirable.

In order to facilitate an understanding of my invention, I havedisclosed. on the accompanying drawings a printing device and a.

number of control vunits and itis believed that upon consideration ofthese. drawings in. connection with the. following description theinvention and one of its practical and preferred embodiments will beclearly understood.

Referring to the drawings Figure l'is a plan view of a printing devicewith one control unit engaged therewith; Fig. 2 is a similar view, theprinting device bemg Indicated only diagrammatically and the con trolunit being reversed relatively to its posit on in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is asimilar view showing a control unit of another series; Fig. 4 is asimilar view showing the control unit disclosed in Fig. 3 in reversedposition; Fig. 5 is a similar view. showing a control unit of each oftwo series engaged with the printing device; Fig. 6 is a detail View ofthe control unit illustrated in Figs. 1 andQ; Fig. 7 is a similar viewof the control unit illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4; and, Figs. 8 and 9 aresimilar views of special control units 2 the purpose of which will belater described. I On the drawings md referring particularly to Fig. 1reference character 11 desiglnates a printing device preferably formedifrom asheet of metal upon. which an ad- ;dress or other printed mattermay be [stamped up, the device shown for the purposes of illustrationbeing of the general character and construction disclosed in my priorPatent No. 1,015,758, 'r'antcd January $23, 1912. The device as shownhas an ele- 1 voted portion 12 provided with alined openings in itsupper and lower walls to form keeper slots 13 adapted to receive thestems of the various control units included in my 1 present invention.

Printingdevices of this general character are, in practice, fedconsecutively through an addressing or other printing machine.

which comprises two or more series of adjustable controllers adapted tobe located in lany predetermined position flCljtLCGIlll the path oftravelof. the printing devices so that are notpositioned to'e'ngage andactuate a cont-roller. Sincet-he control units are ar ranged on theprint-mg dGVlCCS according to a predetermined classification, it willbe" manifest that as the devices are run through the machine animpression will be taken from each device of a certain class, the classthat the. printing device 11 is provided with, thirteen keeper slots 13.

Each slot is adapted to receive and retain any one of the control unitsof my present system. The control units, shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 6 andat the left in Fig. 5, comprise a stem 14-, a head 15 and an operativeportion 16 projectiug above ibe head and atone side of the longitudinalaxis of the unit. When the unit is engaged ir keeper slot number one,for iiistane in the position shown in F 1 the operative pori ion 16extends beyond the periphery of the printing device in position toengage and actuate a controller. on the printing machine positioned inthe path, of travel of the operative portion as the printing device is.fed through the machine. All printing devices carrying a control unitarranged in this position will be printed while ihe devices having unitsarranged in other positions will be passed idly through the machine. Allprinting devices carrying a control unitin the position shown in Fig. 1therefore, may be said to be in one class.

By reversing the control unit on the printing device so that it assumestheposition shown in Fig. 2 another classification is provided. Sincethere are thirteen keeper slots in the embodimentillustrated and, sinceeach control unit of this class may be arranged in two positions in eachslot, it. will be obvious that twenty-six classifications may beefi'ected by coniroi units of the character shown in Fig. 6.

In order to provide for twenty-six additional classes, I employ anotherseries of units of the character shown in Fi 's. 1' and 7. Each of theunits of this series coaupriscs a stem 17 similar to the stem 14 of theseries above described. a head 18 and an operative portion 19 extendingbeyond the head 18 and at one side of the longitudinal axis of thesteni'17. It will be observed that the heads 18 of this series of unitsextend beyond the periphery of the printing ing the operative portions19 of the un itsdn two operative positions for each keeper slottwenty-eight. i -.-cated by a short unit positioned as shown in Fig. 1,while class twenty-eight would norand, accordingly, providing fortwenty-six different classifications in connection with the thirteenslots on the printing device.

In order to prevent the controllers adapted to be actuated by theoperative portion 16 of the short units, from being operated by theprojecting heads 18 of the long units, I have provided these heads withperforations 21 and 22 through which the controllersmay pass. Of course,there is no possibility of the short units accidentally operating thecontrollers adapted to be actuated by-the long units, since theextremities of the operative portions of the short units do notextend'beyond the printing device sufiiciently to contact with the longunit controllers. It will be manifest, therefore, that I have provided asystem of control embodying two series of control units, the units ofeach series being adapted to actuate their own controllers and the unitsof each series being constructed so that they are incapable of operatingthe controllers adapted to be actuated by the units of the other series.

It may often be desirable to classify one printing device in two ormoreclasses so that an impression will be effected from this device wheneverthe machine is set to print the devices in any one'of these classes. Oneprinting device may, therefore, be provided with two or more controlunits of the same or of different series. 'For purpose of illustration,assume that the unit shown in Fig. 1 is positioned to indicate-class oneand in Fig. 2 is positioned to indicate class two. This unit may bepositioned with the operative portion disposed to the left or to theright in each one of the thirteen keeper slots, thereby providing'forclasses one to twenty-six, inclusive. The unit shown in Fig. 3 is,therefore, positioned to indicate class twenty-seven; in Fig. 4: it ispositioned to indicate class twenty-eightand it may be variouslypositioned to indicate classes twenty-seven to fifty-two, inclusive.Should it be desirable to classify a print ing device'in classes one andtwenty-five, for instance, one control unit would be positioned as shownin Fig. 1- and another would be positioned on the same device in slotnumber 13 with the operative portion projecting toward the left. If itshould be desirable to classify this device in classes one andfifty-one, the short unit in slot 13 would be replaced-by a long unithaving itsoperative portion extending toward the left. It is believedthat it will be clear from these illustrations how the units of thevarious class or classes from one to fifty-two. Let

us assume, however, that it is desirable to classify a printing device1n classes one and Class one would be indimallybeindicated by a longunit positioned 1 in slot one withitsoperative portion extend ingjtowardthe-right as shown in Fig. 4;

Since each-0f the keeper-slots-is adapted to, receive-and retain but"one-unit at atime, -it will-be manifest that the; classification of adevice in. classes one and ftwenty-eight 1 would require an especiallyconstructed unit. I have deviseda special unit, as shown in Fig. 8,comprising a stem 17 ,a head.18 and an operative portion- 19substantially like; that shown in Figs. 3, a and 7, except for-- thefact, that the aperture 22 is:omi-tted, so that this portion of the headis'adapted to 1 actuate a controller normally actuated by a unit of theshort series. This single unit may, therefore, be employed to designateboth classes one and twenty-eight, for instance, and, when'a deviceequipped with this unit is fed through the machine, the device will'printin class one and will also print in -class twenty-eight.

One other condition'may arise which the ordinary "control units areincapable of meeting, viz., Where the classification of a device is suchthat one .operative portion.

must be disposed directly above another;

for instance, suppose it be desirable to classify a printing device inclasses one and twenty-seven. Unless a specially'constr'ucted unit beemployed such a combination could only be effected by positioning both along and a short unit in'slot number 1:

To meet this situation I have devised a specially constructed unit suchas is shownin Fig. 9, this unit bein'g si'mply the ordiemployed exceptin" particular instances which require the use-eta .unit'such as isshown in Fig. 8 or in Fig. 9. 'Theoperative portions of thevarious unitsmay be provided with index characters, if desired, so that these unitsmay alsoperform the function of visual index tabs.- For all ordinarywork a classification embodying fifty-two classes will be foundsufli'cient but, if it should be desirable to extend the classificationbeyond fifty-two, this .result may be readily accomplished by providinga third series of units havingthe operative portions thereof arranged toextend beyond the extremities of the operative portions. 19 pf thelonger series illustrated on the draw 4 izws.

It is believed that the principle of "my invention and one practicalmanner of car-1 the same into effect will be understood To provide 'forsuch an emergency,

Without further description "and. it ,ivill be .obvioustha-t thestructural details disclosed may be varied within considerable;- limitswithout departing from the spirit. of the invention or sacrificing 'anyof; the material advantages thereof; I 1

I claimq IL'A printing control system, comprising -a plurality of seriesof control units, each unitbeing adapted to be detachably en mgaged witha printing device and having an operative portion arranged to extendbeyond the periphery of the printing device,

-the units of each series being distinguished from the units of theother series by a difference in the distance of the operative portionsthereof from the periphery of the printing device.

2. A printing control system, comprising aplurality of series ofreversible units," each unit being adapted to be detachably engaged witha printing device and having an operative portion arranged to extgpd beyond the periphery of the printing dcvice, said operative portion beingadapted to be disposed in different operative positions upon reversal ofthe unit on the printing device,. the operative portions of'the'units ofeach series being spaced from the edge of the printing device adifferent distance than the operative portions of the units of theotherseries.

3. Aprinting control system, comprising aplural'ity of series ofcontrolunits, each unit being adapted to be detachably engaged with aprinting device and having an operative portion adapted to extend be-.yond the periphery of the printing device,

each unit of one series being provided with a perforation disposedsubstantially the same distance beyond the peripheryof the printingdevice as the operative portions of the units of another series.

4. A printing control system, comprising a series of long control unit-sand a series of short control units, all of said units being adapted tobe detachably engaged with a printing device and having operativeportions adaptedtc extend beyond the periphcry of the printing device,said long control units being each provided with a perforation disposedin alinement with the operative portions of the short control units.

5; A printing control systennpomprising a pluralityof series'of controlunits, each unit being adapted to-be detachably engaged with a printingdevice andhaving an operative 'portion adapted to extend be yond theperiphery of the printing device,

' each unit of one series being provided with a perforation between theoperative portion of the unit and the periphery of the printing device.

' 6. A printing control system, comprising aseries of controlunits'adap'ted o be detachably engaged with a printing device, 'tachablyengaged with a printing device, each 'unit having an operative portionarone or more of saidunits having an operranged to assumedifferentoperative posiative portion arranged tolextend beyond the tions uponreversal of the unite on the printperiphery of the printing device andalso 5 ing device end being provided withfa perhaving a perforationdisposed beneath and- 15 foration disposed between said operative at oneside of said operative portion.

portion and the-periphery of the printing i JOSEPH S. ,'DUNOAN. device.Witnesses 7. A printing control system, comprising In J. WILSON, 10 a.series of control units adapted to be de- J. G. CARPENTER.

